New iOS Game Releases This Week: January 23, 2014

Each week brings a barrage of new games for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it can be difficult to pick out of the cream of the crop by looking at a mass of icons and titles. Luckily, we're tuned in to the most notable releases, and we'll be presenting a small stack of them with this column. Every single week, you'll find a diverse array of free and paid games across a variety of genres, and we'll highlight the unique aspects of each, as well as anything that seems like it might be a barrier to enjoyment.

While the week isn’t packed with huge, long-awaited releases, you’ll still find a handful of potentially interesting new App Store picks — including Chillingo’s horror-tinged In Fear I Trust, free-to-play racer Motocross Meltdown, and a free port of role-playing classic Tales of Phantasia that purports to be free of mandatory in-app purchases. Be sure to keep an eye out for full reviews of some of these titles in the coming days, and then check back next Thursday for an all-new list of notable games to consider.

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New iOS Games

In Fear I Trust ($2.99, Universal) is a first-person psychological thriller that finds you exploring spooky terrain, solving various puzzles, and encountering spectral threats. You’ll need to swap to a special mode to uncover secrets in the environments, as well as closely examine objects, all in an effort to escape from the mysterious building you’re trapped within.

Namco’s sprawling Tales role-playing franchise begins its move to iOS with Tales of Phantasia (Free, Universal), a port of the mid-90s classic. Curiously, this old-school favorite claims to be fully playable for free, with in-app purchases only used for special perks and items. Hopefully it holds up — and wasn’t tweaked to make such purchases feel necessary.

Song Blaster (Free, Universal) searches your iOS device’s music library and then creates a unique, cartoonish shoot-‘em-up stage for each and every song you can throw at it. You’ll encounter different tempos, enemy arrangements, and challenges with each track loaded, offering a colorful new way to enjoy your music.

An attractive throwback to the 16-bit era, Foxtrot! ($1.99, Universal) is a puzzle-tinged platformer in which you’ll run and jump to collect eggs, overcome hazards, and make it to the goal in each stage. It looks great, but this is the kind of touch game that lives or dies based on its virtual controls — here’s hoping they’re precise enough to do the trick.

One of the better-known tower defense affairs on the App Store gets a follow-up this week with TowerMadness 2 ($4.99, Universal), which delivers some 40 stages across 4 campaigns, letting you create your own unique turret arrangements as you keep 16 types of aliens from reaching your flock of sheep. And it has iOS 7 controller support, to boot.

Grandpa and the Zombies ($0.99, Universal) is an environmental puzzler that finds you navigating a wheelchair-bound eldery man through undead-packed stages. Swiping in any direction sends all of the level’s inhabitants that way, so you’ll need to keep grandpa safe while driving out the enemies via various hazards. Think smart — and watch the rotting flesh!

Gameloft’s earlier iOS take on Mattel’s board game has been removed from the App Store, but the new Blokus ($1.99, Universal) should satisfy those with the urge to play a digital version. Online multiplayer is sure to be the biggest draw here, as you’ll work to conquer the board against three others, though you can also play solo against the computer.

An unabashed clone of Nintendo’s much-loved portable Advance Wars series, Front Wars ($2.99) shifts the action to a World War II setting without losing the cartoonish appeal of the strategic combat. It might not be the most original game around, but with both online and local pass-and-play options, Front Wars may satisfy long-suffering fans of that franchise.

One Button Sports ($0.99, Universal) offers exactly what it describes: simple, accessible renditions of popular sports for iOS devices. What’s unclear from the title is that just two sports — tennis and jet-ski racing — are featured, though it includes same-screen multiplayer and various single-player divisions and tournaments to participate in.